Each institution is associated with other institutions by various characteristics: geography, athletic conference, religious affiliation, programming, mission, etc.

A list of groups appears below; select a tab to view each group membership and information.

These three groups, common across institutions, are directly informed by IPEDS data:

• AUTO: Created by IPEDS in 2023-24 based on an internal “automatic” grouping process involving Level, Control, Carnegie classification, and other variables.
• CUSTOM: The group of comparison institutions submitted to IPEDS by MSMU in 2023-24.
• REVERSE: The group of institutions that included MSMU in their 2023-24 IPEDS custom group.

The following additional groups were determined by known affiliations of MSMU:

• AICCU: Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU)
• CATHOLIC: Institutions reporting a religious affiliation of Roman Catholic to IPEDS in 2022-23. 4+ Years, Private NFP.
• HISPANIC≥25: Institutions reporting at least 25% fall undergraduate enrollment as Hispanic/Latino to IPEDS in 2022-23. 4+ Years, Private NFP.
• METRO-NURSING: MSMU benchmark institutions with substantial Nursing programs (CIP Code 51.38, at least 33.33% Baccalaureate completions in 2023-24) and urbanicity (City: Large or Suburb: Large), with expenses from 50-200M and FTE Total from 1250-5000. 4+ years, Private NFP.
• MSMU-BROAD: MSMU benchmark institution exploration: Broad cut using IPEDS 2022-23 data. 4+ Years, Private NFP, Endowment = 75M-400M, FTE_UG = 750-4000, Carnegie = Master’s Small, Medium, and Large; BA Diverse Fields; Doctoral/Professional
• MSMU-NARROW: MSMU benchmark institution exploration: Narrow cut using IPEDS 2022-23 data. Institutions included in MSMU-BROAD plus at least one other affiliation (AICCU, AUTO, CATHOLIC, CUSTOM, HISPANIC-25, REVERSE, and/or WOMEN-75).
• NURSING-UG≥25: Institutions reporting at least 25% undergraduate completions as nursing (CIP code 51.38) in 2023-24. 4+ Years, Private NFP.
• WOMEN≥75: Institutions reporting at least 75% fall undergraduate enrollment as Women in 2023-24. 4+ Years, Private NFP.